It’s a given that office rules are essential in all work environments, but that really doesn’t mean that your boss has to be a dictator. Instead, having trust in your employees has been proven to be good for workplace efficiency and motivation.
Here are seven office rules that you could do without:
1. Strict Attendance
One major—and ridiculous—workplace rule is the one regarding work attendance. This includes clocking in and out plus restricted time-off from work.
It’s quite amazing that some bosses still expect their staff to come in before the nine even after they’ve stayed on for five hours to finish up projects that profits the company.
Cold hearted, no? Instead of restricting rules on time leniency, looking after staff welfare would be a better option.
2. Restricting Internet
Social media is pretty common sight to see when you walk pass your staff’s desk, which automatically brings you to assume that they’re straying.
But then again, what if they’re good at what they do at work? What’s the harm with a little bit of socialising on the internet?
Look at it as tools to help them unwind from their routine workload and not as a sign that they are wandering off.
3. No Mobile Phones
As much as mobile phones bring convenience, we understand how they also serve as a nuisance especially when you see your employees tapping on their phones more than their keyboards.
However, restricting mobile usage completely may deprive your employees from real emergencies and also the possibility of giving your clients prompt service by texting instead of emailing.
The key to keep mobile usage from going out of hand, as suggested by Dr Travis Bradberry (co-author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0), is to teach superiors to properly handle employees that abuse their privilege.
4. Requiring Specific Attire
Apart from forming impressions, isn’t work also about delivering results and performing well to keep the company running?
Unless it’s a formal meeting, maybe giving your employees the liberty to wear what they are comfortable in—within reason—to create a more relaxed and comfortable environment to be in while doing their work and hence decreasing the level of tension (and sweaty armpits) in the office.
5. Ranking Performance
“Grading” staff performance level limits their creativity, suppresses their self-esteem and affects the decisions they make when performing their work. It’s “keep to the books, or suffer the bad performance review”, which is honestly not fair for those who think out of the box or perform at a different pace from others.
No one likes being treated like some kind of year-end product review, so keep an open mind about performance and focus on rewarding excellence.
6. Controlling Emails
If it’s not work related, the email isn’t going through! Really? Do you honestly gain anything by implementing policies on emails?
This may not seem common in many companies as of yet, but the fact that there are such softwares that are already in use seems pretty ridiculous to even comprehend.
If you don’t trust your employees, why even hire them in the first place? There are better and more time-saving ways to ensure efficient work performance than monitoring each and every email that gets sent out.
Now, although these may seem out of the norm or extreme, this post is just a friendly reminder that it’s about time we keep pace with the world and stop taking steps backward.
Even if you really do have a few bad apples, that doesn’t mean you should throw all of your employees into this dungeon of restrictions. No one wants to lose their best performers over petty rules that lowers motivation in the workplace.
This article was originally written by Diana Sequerah and first published on Wobb, a job application platform for millennials who value the importance of good working culture.
